1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image recording device equipped with both facsimile functions and copier functions and provided with an image scanning part and recording part.
2. Background Art
An image recording device equipped with both facsimile functions and copier functions and provided with an image scanning part that advances a document and scans an image on the document and a recording part that advances a recording sheet and records an image on the recording sheet is publicly known. Trays such as a document sheet supply tray, document sheet outlet tray and recorded paper discharge tray are arranged on this kind of device. The document is fed from the document sheet supply tray to the image scanning part. After the scanning, the document is discharged onto the document sheet outlet tray. The recording sheet is fed to the recording part from a cassette unit. After the recording, the recorded sheet is discharged onto the recorded paper discharge tray. However, these trays project from the side of the device (generally one lateral side of the device) so that the ground space increases. For this reason, a type of device where these trays do not project from the side has been recently developed.
However, on even devices where the trays do not project from the side, the document transport part is positioned in the top part of the device for easier document sheet supply operations. As a result, the recorded paper discharge tray is often arranged in the inner part of the device. In particular, on a device equipped with facsimile functions, if the recorded paper discharge tray is arranged in the inner part of the device, the operator will often not realize that the recorded paper (paper on which is recorded the facsimile data received from a remote facsimile machine) has been exhausted due to the fact the he or she is very rarely close to the machine.
In addition, a multi-purpose tray which is generally used for feeding of an arbitrary size of sheet into the device instead of using the cassette unit is also attached to the side of the device. Generally, the multi-purpose tray for holding the recording sheets is provided as a flap door-like tray, which is opened and closed (or attached and detached) by the operator's hand. The flap-type tray is generally not rigid very much so that it cannot hold a large number of recording sheets. When the multi-purpose tray is opened, it projects from the side of the device. When this tray is closed, it forms a part of a lateral wall of the device. In short, there is no multi-purpose stacking area within the width of the conventional device. Accordingly, the amount of space by which the multi-purpose tray projects from the side of the device is necessary around the device. Furthermore, when inserting the recording sheets into the multi-purpose tray, an operation to open the multi-purpose tray (or an attachment operation) is necessary. Yet further, as a large amount of paper can not be stacked on this kind of multi-purpose tray projecting from the side of the device, there must be repeated supplementation of a small amount of paper to the multi-purpose tray.
Another type of image recording device having a plurality of trays is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, Laid Open Publication No. 05-160939.